This is our class Cyber Library; Cybrary. Add your daily annotated links here and organize by content type. Log into Tech4educators12.wikispaces.com and click on the edit tab for this page. You'll see a toolbar and the page will become editable. Make sure to "save" after you've added your LIVE links (just like in Moodle, highlight the link, copy, click the link button on the toolbar, and past the link into the pop-up window, click on "new window", click submit. Make sure to add your name and the date so we know who said what.
VT Tech Teachers www.vita-learn.org an organization of and for VT teachers using technology; webiste has webquests, research, papers, notices of conferences, professional development opportunities and, coming soon....online PD.
Brain and Learning: http://www.brainrules.net/The Brain Rules by: John Medina is a multi media project/book that focuses on our brains and how we learn. This site has interactive pieces as well as a concept map that represents the brains' functions as Medina sees them.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com Twitter is a shorthand communication program, much like Facebook you post your current thinking, links, or what you're up to in under 160 characters. If you get your colleagues or friends (or students?) on Twitter too then you can keep a pretty cool dialogue going.
Thirty Interesting Ways* to Use Twitter in the Classroom Lisa sparked my interest in how Twitter might be used in an educational setting. This site offers a wide variety of suggestions. I like the historical tweets (in the role of famous people in history) idea!
Web Design: http://www.weebly.com Weebly.com is my current favorite free website building/hosting site. There are many more you'll find links to on the course site, but this one is pretty easy to use and has a lot of good tools.
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open
A widget calendar to add to your webpage. Still working out how it works, it might be a feed from your own Google Calendar online. Check it out and see.
http://edu.glogster.com This is a site I'm sure many of you have already made use of in the classroom, but it's new to me and wonderful. It's an interactive, multimedia online poster that allows students to be really creative while engaging in the content. It's applications are endless. Check it out.
6 weeks to creating and using a class blogThis site is part of the edublogger help, but I think it would be valuable for anyone creating a class web sites. It has links to existing web sites used in classrooms and lots of good advice.
Favicon Generator A simple tool that let's you create an icon in moments to pop in front of your URL in the browser's address bar.
http://www.techsmith.com/learn/snagit/10/My favorite and most used piece of software, Screen capture, web download, and visual manipulations galore. A great little tool to use at a moments notice!
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/photoplus/ You can download and install the free version Photo Plus SE which will do a lot of photo manipulation and digital art. The best FREE image editing software I've found for PC!
http://bighugelabs.com/ This is so fun, maybe it should go into the Fun category. This site lets you make posters, puzzles, magazine covers, collages, pop art posters,,,,,, from your photographs
Audio Editing: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity is an free program for download that allows for recording and editing of audio files.
Video Playback/Converters: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Media Player is a media player that can handle many different types of video (like flash videos as well as other types). I use it in place of Windows Media Player. It can also convert from one format to another. I use it to get videos from Youtube to my Ipod.
Video Capture : http://skitch.com/ Screen capture and image sharing with cool arrows to focus attention to a specific point.
http://quietube.com/ QuietTube allows you to view some online videos without the distractions of ads, etc. Also, it allows you to create a URL for the "quieted" video for future use.
Video Sharing: http://www.ted.com/talks/taylor_mali_what_teachers_make.html
In this short video/talk, a fantastic slam poet/teacher answers the question "What do teachers make." It is one of hundreds of talks from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design): Ideas Worth Sharing. The speakers are visionary thinkers in all fields who inspire TED Conference attendees all over the world (and those of us with TED mobile apps, too).
http://www.schooltube.com A w ebsite dedicated to student video and media sharing for entertainment and classroom use.
File Conversion: http://www.zamzar.com/ - Zamzar is a file conversion program that converts many files types to another type. You can enter the URL of a video from a video sharing site.
http://www.ozline.com/electraguide/thesis.html This is a site I chanced upon when researching webquests. It is the brainchild of Tom March, one of the original webquest gurus and it helps students formulate their thesis statement and an outline for writing a persuasive essay. Very cool. http://freerice.com This is a wonderful site for building vocabulary for all levels because as you play it adjusts the difficulty level based on the player's performance: get 2 answers wrong and it drops you a level; get 3 right and it bumps you up one. I plan on incorporating it into my website somehow. It's fun, it's scaffolded, it builds vocabulary, and it donates free rice to starving nations.
http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways I love this and think that by looking around the site, I could find ways to have the students tell the story of their Webquest. The site shows you how to design a story concept using images, audio, and/or video free Web 2.0 tools
http://www.mathpower.com/ a site more geared to high school/ college students; I've found it helpful in a few ways (lists, study skills, algebra practice) for middle school students
TeachervisionA great quick resource for all teachers - this one is for Math, though.
Powers of Ten Video This is a link to a video which provides a great visual of the power of numbers. The video starts 1 meter above a couple on a picnic and zooms outward every few seconds by a power of ten - 1, 10, 100, 1000 meters up and so on - until you see the entire galaxy.
Timez Attack This is a great combination of educational tool and fun. Good presentation of the concept of multiplication, plus entertaining enough to keep students practicing those times tables until they get them. The program gives constant review of facts and assessment of mastery after each level.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/animations/ USGS animated earthquake simulations. Look around to find something you may like if you teach any age science. An online whiteboard
which allows you to invite students to see your whiteboard work in front of them. Neat! Art: http://www.picturingwriting.org - This the site for the writing program I referred to in my "High point of the Year" post. In case you wanted to learn more about it.
http://artsconnected.org/ This site allows you to collect sets of art images to share with students in countless ways.
http://redstudio.moma.org/ I have been very successful using this site to get my students to look at and talk about art. Kids can also visit independently. Great, interactive site.
General http://equity.4teachers.org/index.php? The Equity Index is a database designed to locate resources and tools to help teachers meet the needs of a diverse classroom. Find lessons or information for persons with special needs, disabilities, and language learners. Also find essentials on including persons of various races, religions, and cultures into your community.
http://www.instructables.com/ This is a site which has instructions for DIY projects - everything from making ice cream to building a webcam.
http://www.techlearning.com/Blogs/31100Recent blog post by “Digital Natives” author; “What I Learned Recently in NYC Classrooms” By Marc Prensky- Class size matters only when the teacher does everything
Fun: http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html?cid=us Simpsonize Me
This is a link to a page about the Simpsons Movie. The first tab in the center of the page is where you can create your own Simpson's Avatar (a cartoon character you can use in place of your own image on the web). In class today we discussed the possibility of having students create their own avatar's to use in their own work. You need to register in order to save your avatar, but it is free. You can download an icon, AIM icon, or .jpg file.
http://en.gravatar.com/ A Globally Recognized Avatar: an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. They help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, use one avatar on multiple sites! (Just found this on Animoto.com and thought it sounded good.
http://www.mywebspiration.com/ An online FREE version of Inspiration which allows you to create a graphic organizer; a powerful way to organize objects/thoughts and to show relationships between things.
http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/Bubblr is a community where people can create comic-strips (photonovels) using photos from flickr. Can be a great way for students to show understanding about a specific concept through picture and (limited) words.
http://wordle.net
I though someone had already added this to the list, but it seems I was mistaken. Many of you know this site already and how fun it is to create creative graphics with words. You can save pdf files on iphoto and then manipulate them somewhat. Kids will have fun with this.
Misc: http://www.portaportal.com - This site is a web-based bookmarking site like Delicious. It is an actual site that you must go to and you may allow visitors to the site if you wish as well as do some different organization.
http://tinyurl.com - This site allows you to take any long url (the web address you need to type in to a browser) and change it to a short one. You can then use the short url, and it will send you to the long one.
http://pbworks.com/ Other wiki space besides wikispaces. Can create student accounts without needing email addresses. Very kid friendly-- I have fifth graders using it and getting the 'hang of it' very quickly. This link goes directly to the pbworks information for educators.
http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ "Readability™ is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you're reading." This takes away the ads, pop ups, sidebars and things that distract from text.
Educational Origami This site is just filled with all sorts of things on integrating technology in education. It is a bit overwhelming! .Internet Safety: Safety Games This site has interactive games for kids to play to test (and teach) them about internet safety. I am putting a link to the site on my class website. Internet Safety Webquest A webquest on Internet safety that makes the students the experts. http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ Great resource for educators, parents and other community members
Google Docs and Apps:
Online word documents, spreadsheets and presentations - http://www.google.com/google-d-s/b1.html
Google Apps - http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/k12.html
Copyright Law:
Flickr and copyright permissions (what photos you can and cannot use on flickr): http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
Creative Commons (copyright-free art and sound): http://creativecommons.org/
The copyright society (curriculum and activities to use in the classroom): http://www.csusa.org/caw/caw_2006_teachers_middle.htm
Joe's Marlboro College Info:
Marlboro College Graduate School MAT Program: https://gradschool.marlboro.edu/academics/mat/
Marlboro ETS Program: https://gradschool.marlboro.edu/academics/mat/ets_42
VT Virtual Learning Cooperative - VTVLC: http://www.vtvlc.org/
Marlboro GS - What's Ed Tech?: https://gradschool.marlboro.edu/academics/mat/what_is_teaching_with_technology Communication
VT Tech Teachers
www.vita-learn.org an organization of and for VT teachers using technology; webiste has webquests, research, papers, notices of conferences, professional development opportunities and, coming soon....online PD.
Caleb's Video Links:
Rule of Thirds: http://photospot2004.blogspot.com/2004/07/rule-of-thirds.html
Lighting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting
Brain and Learning:
http://www.brainrules.net/ The Brain Rules by: John Medina is a multi media project/book that focuses on our brains and how we learn. This site has interactive pieces as well as a concept map that represents the brains' functions as Medina sees them.
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com Twitter is a shorthand communication program, much like Facebook you post your current thinking, links, or what you're up to in under 160 characters. If you get your colleagues or friends (or students?) on Twitter too then you can keep a pretty cool dialogue going.
Thirty Interesting Ways* to Use Twitter in the Classroom Lisa sparked my interest in how Twitter might be used in an educational setting. This site offers a wide variety of suggestions. I like the historical tweets (in the role of famous people in history) idea!
Web Design:
http://www.weebly.com Weebly.com is my current favorite free website building/hosting site. There are many more you'll find links to on the course site, but this one is pretty easy to use and has a lot of good tools.
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open
A widget calendar to add to your webpage. Still working out how it works, it might be a feed from your own Google Calendar online. Check it out and see.
http://delmarhistory8.wikispaces.com/ This is a teacher site for his American History classes. The organization is very intricate!
http://edu.glogster.com This is a site I'm sure many of you have already made use of in the classroom, but it's new to me and wonderful. It's an interactive, multimedia online poster that allows students to be really creative while engaging in the content. It's applications are endless. Check it out.
6 weeks to creating and using a class blogThis site is part of the edublogger help, but I think it would be valuable for anyone creating a class web sites. It has links to existing web sites used in classrooms and lots of good advice.
Favicon Generator A simple tool that let's you create an icon in moments to pop in front of your URL in the browser's address bar.
http://www.techsmith.com/learn/snagit/10/My favorite and most used piece of software, Screen capture, web download, and visual manipulations galore. A great little tool to use at a moments notice!
http://www.accesskeys.org/tools/color-contrast.html A tool that will check the brightness and color differences between text elements and background of a site and tell you whether or not the contrast is great enough to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Photo Manipulation:
http://technologytosoftware. com/download-free-photoshop- alternatives-image-editing- tools.html This is a blog page with 31 free photo editing tools.
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/photoplus/ You can download and install the free version Photo Plus SE which will do a lot of photo manipulation and digital art. The best FREE image editing software I've found for PC!
http://arje.net/rasterbator/ Rasterbator! Make your photos into poster-sized or building-sized online
http://bighugelabs.com/ This is so fun, maybe it should go into the Fun category. This site lets you make posters, puzzles, magazine covers, collages, pop art posters,,,,,, from your photographs
Audio Editing:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity is an free program for download that allows for recording and editing of audio files.
Video Playback/Converters:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC Media Player is a media player that can handle many different types of video (like flash videos as well as other types). I use it in place of Windows Media Player. It can also convert from one format to another. I use it to get videos from Youtube to my Ipod.
Video Capture :
http://skitch.com/ Screen capture and image sharing with cool arrows to focus attention to a specific point.
http://quietube.com/ QuietTube allows you to view some online videos without the distractions of ads, etc. Also, it allows you to create a URL for the "quieted" video for future use.
Video Sharing:
http://www.ted.com/talks/taylor_mali_what_teachers_make.html
In this short video/talk, a fantastic slam poet/teacher answers the question "What do teachers make." It is one of hundreds of talks from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design): Ideas Worth Sharing. The speakers are visionary thinkers in all fields who inspire TED Conference attendees all over the world (and those of us with TED mobile apps, too).
http://www.schooltube.com A w ebsite dedicated to student video and media sharing for entertainment and classroom use.
File Conversion:
http://www.zamzar.com/ - Zamzar is a file conversion program that converts many files types to another type. You can enter the URL of a video from a video sharing site.
Digital Lessons:
http://edtechteacher.org/lessons.html edtechteacher 21st Century Learning Innovative Lesson Plans Great ideas!
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm peer reviewed online learning materials
www.teachertube.com This site is much more than videos (which are great); but lesson plans, WebQuests, and more!
Curriculum:
English/Language Arts
http://digitalteachers.net/ Young Writers Project teacher site with links to other YWP resources
http://www.ozline.com/electraguide/thesis.html
This is a site I chanced upon when researching webquests. It is the brainchild of Tom March, one of the original webquest gurus and it helps students formulate their thesis statement and an outline for writing a persuasive essay. Very cool.
http://freerice.com
This is a wonderful site for building vocabulary for all levels because as you play it adjusts the difficulty level based on the player's performance: get 2 answers wrong and it drops you a level; get 3 right and it bumps you up one. I plan on incorporating it into my website somehow. It's fun, it's scaffolded, it builds vocabulary, and it donates free rice to starving nations.
http://tvhs.k12.vt.us/WMHS/Faculty/Kurucz/index.htm This is Christine's HS English website including To Kill a Mockingbird and other WebQuests.
http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways I love this and think that by looking around the site, I could find ways to have the students tell the story of their Webquest. The site shows you how to design a story concept using images, audio, and/or video free Web 2.0 tools
Math
http://www.madison.k12.ky.us/district/projects/WebQuest/MarchMadness/mmwebquest.html - here is a math / hoops related WebQuest I found today that looks fun for all and could be easily modified for our "region".
http://www.mathpower.com/ a site more geared to high school/ college students; I've found it helpful in a few ways (lists, study skills, algebra practice) for middle school students
TeachervisionA great quick resource for all teachers - this one is for Math, though.
Powers of Ten Video This is a link to a video which provides a great visual of the power of numbers. The video starts 1 meter above a couple on a picnic and zooms outward every few seconds by a power of ten - 1, 10, 100, 1000 meters up and so on - until you see the entire galaxy.
Timez Attack This is a great combination of educational tool and fun. Good presentation of the concept of multiplication, plus entertaining enough to keep students practicing those times tables until they get them. The program gives constant review of facts and assessment of mastery after each level.
Science
http://www.sciencemonster.com/ This is a site of science info for elementary students.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/animations/ USGS animated earthquake simulations. Look around to find something you may like if you teach any age science.
An online whiteboard
which allows you to invite students to see your whiteboard work in front of them. Neat!
Art:
http://www.picturingwriting.org - This the site for the writing program I referred to in my "High point of the Year" post. In case you wanted to learn more about it.
http://artsconnected.org/ This site allows you to collect sets of art images to share with students in countless ways.
http://21centuryedtech.wikispaces.com/SketchUp This site allows you to create, modify, and share 3D models.
http://redstudio.moma.org/ I have been very successful using this site to get my students to look at and talk about art. Kids can also visit independently. Great, interactive site.
http://plasq.com/comiclife/ I don't see a link here for Comic Life - here is one. I've used it in the past,
General
http://equity.4teachers.org/index.php? The Equity Index is a database designed to locate resources and tools to help teachers meet the needs of a diverse classroom. Find lessons or information for persons with special needs, disabilities, and language learners. Also find essentials on including persons of various races, religions, and cultures into your community.
http://www.instructables.com/ This is a site which has instructions for DIY projects - everything from making ice cream to building a webcam.
http://www.techlearning.com/Blogs/31100 Recent blog post by “Digital Natives” author; “What I Learned Recently in NYC Classrooms” By Marc Prensky- Class size matters only when the teacher does everything
http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm This is another rubric site similar to Rubistar, but I have been told it's better.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ This is a free tech for teachers site/blog which can be RSS fed. Seems good from what I could tell.
History
http://revolutionarywarantiques.com/Revolutionary-War-Replicas/Revolutionary-War-Replica-Weapons
Here is a fun link for some weaponry from the 1700's.
Fun:
http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html?cid=us Simpsonize Me
This is a link to a page about the Simpsons Movie. The first tab in the center of the page is where you can create your own Simpson's Avatar (a cartoon character you can use in place of your own image on the web). In class today we discussed the possibility of having students create their own avatar's to use in their own work. You need to register in order to save your avatar, but it is free. You can download an icon, AIM icon, or .jpg file.
http://en.gravatar.com/ A Globally Recognized Avatar: an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. They help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, use one avatar on multiple sites! (Just found this on Animoto.com and thought it sounded good.
http://www.mywebspiration.com/ An online FREE version of Inspiration which allows you to create a graphic organizer; a powerful way to organize objects/thoughts and to show relationships between things.
http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/ Bubblr is a community where people can create comic-strips (photonovels) using photos from flickr. Can be a great way for students to show understanding about a specific concept through picture and (limited) words.
http://mywebface.mywebsearch.com/download/index.jhtml?theme=opt5&spu=true&partner=GRxdm021 Cartoon Yourself. My students love to take pictures of themselves and then turn them into other creations.
http://www.superteachertools.com/jeopardy/
A good jeopardy review source.
http://wordle.net
I though someone had already added this to the list, but it seems I was mistaken. Many of you know this site already and how fun it is to create creative graphics with words. You can save pdf files on iphoto and then manipulate them somewhat. Kids will have fun with this.
Misc:
http://www.portaportal.com - This site is a web-based bookmarking site like Delicious. It is an actual site that you must go to and you may allow visitors to the site if you wish as well as do some different organization.
http://educationwithkris.wikispaces.com/ Great school wiki made by a principal. Imagine the possiblities.
http://tinyurl.com - This site allows you to take any long url (the web address you need to type in to a browser) and change it to a short one. You can then use the short url, and it will send you to the long one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORxFwBR4smE - How NOT to use PowerPoint
http://pbworks.com/ Other wiki space besides wikispaces. Can create student accounts without needing email addresses. Very kid friendly-- I have fifth graders using it and getting the 'hang of it' very quickly. This link goes directly to the pbworks information for educators.
http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/ "Readability™ is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you're reading." This takes away the ads, pop ups, sidebars and things that distract from text.
http://widgets.nationalgeographic.com/widgets/ this Nat. GEO. site has two good widgets -easy to embed for daily update stuff for websites
Webquests:
www.zunal.com Beth tweeted about this site and I finally checked it out-great for webquest examples and info
http://bestwebquests.com/default.asp
This is a site /matrix of Webquests A list webquests that may require a further search for the the actual webquest.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/WebQuest/matrix/6-8-Sci.htm
Another Matrix for 6-8-Science - Here is one from there - Mars or The Moon
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/x/jxz8/Student_Webquests/brown/quest.htm
Research:
**http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/** the Two-Pager, the White Paper, and the Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out
Over three years, University of California, researchers interviewed over 800 youth and young adults and conducted over 5000 hrs of online observation for the most extensive US study of youth media use.
Educational Origami
This site is just filled with all sorts of things on integrating technology in education. It is a bit overwhelming!
.Internet Safety:
Safety Games This site has interactive games for kids to play to test (and teach) them about internet safety. I am putting a link to the site on my class website.
Internet Safety Webquest A webquest on Internet safety that makes the students the experts.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/ Great resource for educators, parents and other community members